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Facebook Inc said on Thursday it has expanded its ‘Climate Change Information Centre’ to 12 countries, including India, Spain, Mexico and South Africa.
The California-based company launched the climate information portal on its platform in September last year, attempting to provide factual and up-to-date climate information. The portal was modeled into the platform’s COVID-19 Information Center, which is said to have directed more than 2 billion people to information from health authorities and has garnered over 600 million clicks, according to Facebook.
It was launched in France, Germany, the UK, and the U.S. last year.
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The social network has also added several features to help debunk common climate myths. This includes general statements like ‘too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere harms the earth’s plant life’ and ‘polar bear population is declining because of global warming’, Facebook said in a statement.
Facebook will also start adding informational labels to some posts on climate in the UK that will direct people to the information centre.
The Climate Science Information Center features facts, figures and data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and their global network of partners including the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The move is part of the social network’s effort to curb misinformation on its platform. Facebook continues to face criticism for allowing hate speech and misleading content to thrive, especially regarding important events like the COVID-19 pandemic.
